Field of the Art
The disclosure relates to the field of data analysis, and more particularly to the representation of multidimensional analysis graphs.
Discussion of the State of the Art
In the art of data analysis, it may often be necessary to view multiple variables for an entity (such as a variety of scoring metrics for an individual, or a variety of measurements of an organization's operation). Often, it is also desirable to view changes in such metrics in time, such as a progression or drill-down. Traditionally, such information is presented as a number of two-axis visual graphs common in the art, with additional visualizations or drill-downs to represent new data over time (essentially, each graph may represent a snapshot of a set of metrics at a given point in time, with multiple snapshots intended to represent a time period).
Such an approach may make it difficult for analysts to manage data, having a large number of similar visual presentations to monitor or track at once, and may introduce error. Furthermore, a series of snapshots may not be an adequate representation of change over time, as the gaps between snapshots may contain relevant information that is lost.
What is needed, is a means to represent a wider dataset in a unified manner, with the ability to present multiple variables simultaneously and the ability to display changes over time along with the data rather than requiring additional sets of data to be viewed and analyzed individually.